Windows 11, version 24H2 represents significant improvements to the already robust update foundation of Windows. With the latest version, you get reduced installation time, restart time, and central processing unit (CPU) usage for Windows monthly updates. Additionally, enhancements to the handling of feature updates further reduce download sizes for most endpoints by extending conditional downloads to include Microsoft Edge. Let’s take a closer look at these advancements.
↫ Steve DiAcetis at the Windows IT Pro Blog
Now this is the kind of stuff we want to see in new Windows releases. Updating Windows feels like a slow, archaic, and resource-intensive process, whereas on, say, my Fedora machines it’s such an effortless, lightweight process I barely even notice it’s happening. This is an area where Windows can make some huge strides that materially affect people – Windows updates are a meme – and it’s great to see Microsoft working on this instead of shoving more ads onto Windows users’ desktops.
In this case, Microsoft managed to reduce installation time, make reboots faster, and lower CPU and RAM usage through a variety of measures roughly falling in one of three groups: improved parallel processing, faster and optimised reading of update manifests, and more optimal use of available memory. We’re looking at some considerable improvements here, such as a 45% reduction in installation time, 15-25% less CPU usage, and more. Excellent work.
On a related note, at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, Microsoft also unveiled a number of audio improvements for Windows on ARM that will eventually also make their way to Windows on x86. I’m not exactly an expert on audio, but from what I understand the Windows audio stack is robust and capable, and what Microsoft announced today will improve the stack even further. For instance, support for MIDI 2.0 is coming to Windows, with backwards compatibility for MIDI 1.0 devices and APIs, and Microsoft worked together with Yamaha and Qualcomm to develop a new USB Audio Class 2 Driver.
In the company’s blog post, Microsoft explains that the current USB Audio Class 2 driver in Windows is geared towards consumer audio applications, and doesn’t fulfill the needs of professional audio engineers. This current driver does not support the standard professional software has standardised on – ASIO – forcing people to download custom, third-party kernel drivers to get this functionality. That’s not great for anybody, and as such they’re working on a new driver.
The new driver will support the devices that our current USB Audio Class 2 driver supports, but will increase support for high-IO-count interfaces with an option for low-latency for musician scenarios. It will have an ASIO interface so all the existing DAWs on Windows can use it, and it will support the interface being used by Windows and the DAW application at the same time, like a few ASIO drivers do today. And, of course, it will handle power management events on the new CPUs.
↫ Pete Brown at the Dev Blogs
The code for this driver will be published as open source on GitHub, so that anyone still opting to make a specialised driver can use Microsoft’s code to see how things are done. That’s a great move, and one that I think we’ll be seeing more often from Microsoft. This is great news for audio professionals using Windows.
Microsoft incorporating ASIO and MIDI v2 into Windows? I must be dreaming! 🙂
For those wondering:
ASIO is a low-latency protocol for bitmap sound (your normal digital audio).
MIDI is the protocol for vector sound (commands to perform digital audio). Also used for controlling studio lighting and for fireworks. Having MIDI integrated in the operating system may have led many people with synthesizers to choose an Apple desktop computer.
Reading the sentence “Microsoft also unveiled a number of audio improvements for Windows”, my first reaction was “ohh crap, now we’ll need microsoft accounts for playing mp3s as well”
Audio on Windows has consistently been a nightmare. You need those godforsaken unofficial ASIO drivers for pretty much anything. These add latency to everything. Each time you plug or unplug something, everything gets messed up. I mean, I always turn off sound on my laptop to prevent notifications from making noise at work. Each time I work from home, then return to work, the sound volume gets turned on and maxed out. The order of the devices is non-deterministic, even if all devices (HDMI, integrated, USB) have been previously plugged into the computer. And we need true native sound routing in Windows, like MacOS has, We should not have to use VoiceMeeter Potato to do pretty much everything that Windows lacks.
Never had the problems you mention. Maybe yours is a very specific case.
kwanbis,
That’s the way a lot of support issues go. Not everyone’s experience goes the same. As part of my job supporting software this happens quite a lot; some users experience problems that are hard/unusual to reproduce. Their use patterns/drivers may be different or whatever.
Not related to audio, but two or so weeks ago I was struggling to get HDMI output working on a windows 11 work laptop, which I desperately needed one day. The laptop detected the external monitor correctly, but it just remained blank. Nothing I did worked and I was stuck. Then I came across this…
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/duplicate-display-via-hdmi-not-working-windows-11/6b9bbc60-8628-4984-a2d9-6c1e006b28fd?page=1
I was worried that deleting it could break stuff more, but it worked. The percentage of windows users who experienced this must be pretty small, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating when it does happen. I almost didn’t find a solution.
MIDI 2.0 is supposed to be fully backwards compatible, but the absolute best part of 2.0 is that is bi-directional instead of mono-directional. A great improvement!
I am a little sketical how the “self configuring” of instruments will, work but i hope it will be good.
Nope, we won’t, keeping win32/win64 proprietary is how Microsoft gets to charge a ton of money for what is a legacy tech stack, the particular feature mentioned in the article was released as FOSS because doing so doesn’t threaten Microsoft’s win32/win64 monopoly.
“Microsoft improves Windows’ update experience” is a bizarre statement. There’s a LOT of room to improve that particular circle of hell.
On the 2 machines in my house that still have Windows (gaming PC and a laptop no one uses any more), Windows updates are roughly 20 times slower than Linux updates on the same machine (Debian derivatives or Nobara). 20 times. If they cut that in half, it’s still 10 times slower…
Can we get canyon.mid back then? Please???